The Bear Pit is a small quarry about half a kilometre from Hele on the right hand side of Watermouth Road just before the Coastguard cottages. It was quarried for limestone, probably burnt in kilns (now gone) on Rillage. The origin of the place name is unknown but by local tradition, travelling bears were sometimes shown there.

The Cable Pit is a quarry nearby, between the coastal footpath and the sea. There is said to have been a cable winch here used to bring limestone up from West Haggington Beach.

Bear Pit and Cable Pit are both shown as Quarry (not Old Quarry) on the OS map of 1891, but are not named.

The small quarry on the main road, nearly opposite the Coastguards, is known as Bear Pit and is said to have been used to show 'performing bears'. Another quarry nearby, between the SW Coast Path and the sea, used to be called Cable Pit and there is said to have been a cable here to bring limestone up from Haggington Beach (A Galliver)